Health Minister guarantees that “all the support that the Algarve needs will appear”
Portugal’s Health Minister has vowed to help the Algarve with “whatever means are necessary” to ensure the region is prepared for the summer.
Speaking to journalists in Faro after meeting for four hours with the directors of the Algarve’s Local Health Unit (ULS), Ana Paula Martins said she discussed the “additional means” that the government can provide to support the plan created by regional entities for the summer.
“What is foreseen in the ULS plan is to respond with the means that it can already activate and a few others that we, naturally, will look to activate in the coming weeks,” the minister said.
When asked about the means that the Ministry of Health might need to activate to ensure support for the Local Health Unit (ULS), Ana Paula Martins guaranteed that the ministry will do “whatever is necessary”.
“In the Algarve, people are already very used to (…) living with those who are in the Algarve and responding with those who are in the Algarve,” said the minister – in other words, admitting that the region is used to ‘making do with what it has’ and not necessarily what it needs.
“This decision is outlined in the plan and is a decision made, as you know, in conjunction with the executive board (of the National Health Service) and with the Local Health Unit, which has a clinical director for primary care and a clinical director for hospital care,” she stated.
The health minister explained that there are shifts and rotation models “that are different across the country” – and those that “work well” will be maintained. However, she noted that “there are others that have already proven, in some areas, to need improvement,” with the government paying “particular attention” to the regions of Lisbon and Vale do Tejo and the Algarve.
“This does not mean that the rest of the country is not very important, the whole country is very important, but these are two areas where the government primarily focuses its attention, particularly in terms of emergency care, which has been very well highlighted here, whether paediatric or obstetric, and naturally in responding to situations like trauma or acute illness,” Ana Paula Martins said.
The Minister of Health also stated that she “reinforced” her “absolute confidence” in the plan developed by the Algarve’s ULS, but emphasised that this plan needs to “be adjusted if suddenly necessary” in terms of resources or modifying the response.
“And if necessary, you can be sure that all the support the Algarve region needs will appear,” she guaranteed, arguing that the important thing is to have a plan and that it “adapts to emergency peaks,” rather than the minister specifying the number of doctors or nurses needed.
